When we bought The Shack, this bedroom came with pale lavender walls and a floral wallpaper border at the ceiling. It’s very retro: straight out of the 1980’s, just like the rest of The Shack before we got our hands on it.

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We’ve decided our next big project will be one of the two upstairs bedrooms at The Shack. The back bedroom at the end of the upstairs hallway is our son Grady’s bedroom. He will be so happy to have this much-needed update in his own private space!

When we bought The Shack, this bedroom came with pale lavender walls and a floral wallpaper border at the ceiling. It’s very retro: straight out of the 1980’s, just like the rest of The Shack before we got our hands on it.

BEFORE: The view upon entering this upstairs bedroom is of the window wall. The room is painted a pale lavender color with a purple floral wallpaper border. It has the same cheap old shell molding for casing and baseboards which used to be in the rest of the home. That molding and wallpaper border gives the room such a tired and dated feel. There’s also mottled old Berber style carpeting in the room, which we will be happy to remove!

BEFORE: If you turn around and look in the opposite direction, the entry door from the hallway comes into view on the right and the closet is seen to the left. The closet is a nice size, but you can see they left the original dark burgundy plush carpeting in that space. Can you imagine this entire bedroom carpeted in that horrible dark blood-red color? Oh my! Anyway, there’s not much to salvage in this bedroom space, so we’d better get busy with demo: tearing out all the molding and removing that wallpaper border!

At some point, a previous homeowner decided they needed a ceiling fan in this bedroom. Since they couldn’t figure out how to hard-wire it into the wall (or possibly did not want to pay for an electrician), they ran the cord along the ceiling and down the wall and then attached a plug. Crazy!! Not only is it ugly to see the cord running along the ceiling and wall, it’s downright dangerous to have a fan mounted to the ceiling in this way (So wobbly! And right above the bed!). So, of course, this fan will be the first thing to go, as part of the bedroom renovation.

Next thing on the list: remove that lovely wallpaper border (did you catch my sarcasm there?). Of course, nothing is simple. The border peeled off in skinny strips, leaving a thin layer of paper clinging to the walls. Warm water and elbow grease are the only cure!

Silvia, our Siberian Cat, was the only one having a good time during the wallpaper removal process. She had a terrific time playing with the falling bits of paper and the long swirls of purple floral border on the floor!

Finally, we are able to prime the walls. I say ‘we’ and of course I really mean my dear husband, Eric. First he removed all the door and window casings and baseboards. Then he patched any holes and nail-pops in the drywall, and finally, he was able to prime the ceilings and all four walls. This room looks better already and we haven’t really done anything but prime it!

Whew! This post shows a lot of work on our part…but it’s fun, because the results are so very rewarding!! I love a good before and after, don’t you? Next time, I’ll share my exciting plans for this bedroom’s decor. I’m sure it’ll make a very cool teen boys’ bedroom, but we have a bunch more work to do!

There’s still a lot to share with you, so I hope you’ll stick around as I post the before and afters in our little Poconos mountain house. Until then, make sure to like Robinson Interiors on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter, and DO stay tuned for future updates on The Shack!

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